Recycling at RIT

RIT Recycling has just gotten a lot better. My first few years we had paper recycling and container recycling. We could recycle glass, metal, and plastics numbers 1 and 2 (every plastic bottle has a number on it to tell what type of plastic it is made of). Plastics 1 and 2 limits the amount of what you can recycle considerably.

Over the summer RIT emailed all students letting us know that we were switching to single-stream recycling. Single-stream means that instead of separating plastics and paper they all get thrown in together. It also means that in each location there only needs to be one recycling bin, so the existing bins can be spread throughout campus more evenly.

Another thing that has been improved is that now plastics 1 through 7 are accepted (ALL PLASTIC). This greatly increases the likelihood that a given container can be recycled. The following is a list of everything that can be recycled in an RIT recycling bin:

Because you don't have to sort recycling into paper and plastics anymore, it's much easier to recycle! Since plastics 1 through 7 are accepted you don't have to worry if the bottle in your hand is recyclable or not.

Several dining locations use disposable plates that feel a lot like styrofoam. However, these plates can now be recycled as well! This means that your waste after eating lunch on campus is almost nothing!

All of these things should lead to much higher recycling rates on campus and is just another thing RIT is doing to become more sustainable!